Alina Bondarenco, a former correspondent for the Tiraspol regime’s radio and television company, who was detained in Ukraine, posted a video message on February 23 announcing that she is free, according to Zona de Securitate.
In the video, Bondarenco confirmed that authorities detained her but emphasized she was not placed under arrest and has no connection to the criminal case:
“I am not under arrest and have no connection to the criminal case currently opened. I was indeed detained, but I did not even spend an hour in pretrial detention. (…) I did work for a period at the television company in Transnistria, but last November I resigned and no longer had any connection to that company,” she stated.
She also clarified that she does not hold Ukrainian citizenship and is not 19 years old. According to third-party sources cited by Zona de Securitate, she is currently 18 and will turn 19 in August. The confusion about her age seems to have arisen from her birth year.
Between February 19 and 20, several individuals, including Bondarenco, were detained on suspicion of involvement in a network allegedly preparing contract killings in Ukraine, directed by Russian special services.